Never
by Rev Runner
Summary: AU Zim was never an evil invader; just misunderstood. The only way that he could be seen as a threat to Earth was that he was never too fond of a large headed boy who goes by the name of Dib. Please Review soon.
1. Chapter 1: Skool

It was the first day of skool

**Author's Note: This is the first chapter and it might seem a little strange. Zim is definitely out of character here and I have used some quotes and references from some of the episodes. If you have any feedback, please share with me but please keep it light.**

_It was the first day of skool._

He was walking to skool, carrying his book bag, head held up high. He stops at by at the red stop sign to see pedestrians walking by. As the light turns green, the _innocent_ little green boy crosses the street and continues his journey to his nightmarish place. Summer was over and it seemed like it was bad news for him because he would have to face another year of teasing and constant criticism from the people that he despised most but, he still continued on his way.

_Maybe things would be different._

He hoped to have a good skool year this year and would finally gain the respect that he so rightly deserved. It was just so hard for this "person" to have the confidence to remain within himself since his self- esteem was so low. He was banished from his own home because he was told that he wasn't good enough for the beings on his planet. In other words… he was _defective_ and it pained him so. He had no parents and his home was destroyed and now, he had to live here build a home from scratch. When he did complete this task, all that he ever did was criticize himself and put himself down for the "horrible" job that he did on his own house, saying that anyone was capable of making a home better than his. The little boy also owned a dog at home because he wanted a friend but, even his own dog had an extreme amount of hatred over him. He called him useless and a dumb owner and whenever there was trouble brewing, the dog seemed to solve the problem. On top of all that, this little boy also had a kid in skool who would not leave him alone.

His name was Dib.

Dib was just so mean to him. Every time he saw him, Dib would constantly pick on him and call him an alien for no reason. _It's a skin condition_ the boy would tell him but Dib refused to listen to him. Last year, he teased him for being afraid to go out into the rain and every time their paths would cross, Dib would just have the nerve to pelt him with water balloons, just to watch him suffer in pain and agony. The boy happened to have very sensitive skin and his skin would always sizzle and burn whenever it came into contact with any type of meat or fluid. During the weekends, Dib would just bust into his home and take photos of him during his private moments and would show everyone at skool and the kids would laugh at the green kid, making him feel awful about himself. He always found that Dib always outsmarted him in every thing and he could not be fooled even once. No matter how hard the boy fought for his rights, Dib would just come out on top, exposing him and making his life miserable in the end.

_I hate my life,_ he thought to himself as his head drooped downwards._ Why is he always so mean to me? I do nothing wrong to him, I stay out of his way and I am always nice to him. Why am I even here in skool? I don't belong there. I just wish that I was on a different planet; away from Dib forever._

He continued walking to this nightmare, tugging on his bag anxiously and twiddling his thumbs, having second thoughts about earlier.

_Things will never change. This year is going to be just horrible with Dib around to bug me in skool._

His walk was put to a halt as he felt a hard bump which made him fall to the ground. He looked up to see a dark-haired boy sporting glasses, a black trench coat and a shirt underneath with a smiley face. The green kid peered up at the boy whose glasses were shimmering in the sunlight and had an impish grin on his face.

The boy, Dib just got in his face. "Hello, Zim?"

Zim stood up and brushed himself off; his head drooped downward, feeling ashamed. "Leave me alone, Dib. Why do you have to be so mean?"

Dib just shook his head annoyed, "pitiful alien."

Zim's mouth hung open in shock. He was hurt, very hurt; his enemy referring him to an alien and calling him pitiful. "I'm not an alien!" He protested.

The dark haired boy just shouted at him, clawing his hand. "You lie, green skinned boy! Oh how much you lie!"

"I'm not an alien," Zim repeated in a softer tone. "I just have a skin condition."

Zim feared Dib a lot. He was afraid of seeing him; feeling that he never had the courage to confront him. Every time he was communicating with someone, Zim felt intimidated and unsure of himself. People always had the power to change his mind for him and Zim would rarely stick up for himself to avoid on getting on anyone's bad side. He felt jealous whenever he was around Dib because things just came easily to him. Dib was always getting good grades, impressing his teachers, pleasing his dad, he was loved by his sister and he was popular unlike Zim; who had no friends in skool and was a loner. Students in his class were always calling him crazy and making fun of him because of the size of his head. Kids refused to listen to him whenever he would attempt in saving their lives or believe his crazy stories about Dib trying to send everyone inside a wormhole. No one would sit near him or would want to sit beside him because he was weird and he always made a big deal about trivial things.

The bell rang.

Zim rushed into the building and hurried to his locker. He was worried that if he was late one more time, Mrs. Bitters threatened to put him in the underground classroom.

The innocent student slid into the classroom. "You're late again, Zim," his teacher snarled.

Zim looked at her feeling ashamed. He apologized, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Bitters. I tried to get here as fast as I could."

"Sit down, Zim. I've had it with you and you're crazy stories."

"But, Mrs. Bitters, it's not a crazy story; it's the truth," Zim pleaded.

"You're crazy," Dib called from across the classroom.

"Thank you, Dib. You get an A. As for you Zim," the teacher turned to Zim and growled menacingly, "I'll see you after class."

Zim swallowed hard; an achy feeling forming in his stomach as he obeyed, "yes, Mrs Bitters."

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It was lunch.

Zim sat at a far table, eating his lunch all by himself with no one to keep him company. He chewed on his sandwich and he sighed sadly. He knew that he was not like the other kids. He didn't share the same interests or hobbies with them and he had nothing to talk about with anybody. Whenever a time would come where he had to say something that was on his mind, Zim would say that he had nothing. He was always obsessed with one thing in his life and that would be about his stories about Dib. Of course, everyone thought that Zim was crazy for believing in such things about Dib just because he never got along with him and yes, he would always stay out of class discussions to avoid making a fool out of himself. Whenever he did do that though, kids would wonder why he would never express himself in the class discussions as he did whenever he isn't even told to. People thought that that was weird and _inhuman._

Skool was hard for Zim. People were so mean and nothing ever went the way he wanted it to. There isn't a day that goes by where Zim wishes that skool would end and when that day would come, he would be happy.

He took a bite out of his muffin and grimaced at the taste. He threw the muffin away carelessly which hit Dib.

From the other side of the table, Dib looks up at where the muffin came from. "Who threw this?!" His dangerous eyes fixed on Zim.

"I'm sorry, Dib," Zim immediately confessed. "It was an accident."

Dib seethed with the muffin scrunched up in his palm; crumbs falling from each side, making a mess on the floor. "You will pay dearly for this, Zim. Sleep peacefully now, alien; for it is the last peaceful sleep that you will know from this moment on."

Zim gulped anxiously and shuffled back to his spot. What has he done? Why did he have to throw that muffin at Dib? He should have been more careful to where he was throwing it.

The bell rang once more. Lunch was over.

**End of chapter 1.**

**Please review.**


	2. Chapter 2: Writer's Block

Here is the next chapter

**Here is the next chapter.**

For the first week of skool, Zim has taken an interest in doing research about life on other planets. He was very excited about exploring the internet and learning new things. He recently bought a laptop for himself to keep himself occupied and to get his mind off of Dib's taunting. During one of Mrs. Bitters' boring lectures, Zim pulled out his laptop and googled in anything that came to mind. He googled any questions that he wanted to learn about like, 'what are humans like? How many live on this planet? What is the name of the planet that has humans living on?' Even though Zim had a desire to explore the internet, he felt a little bit ignorant about what his research was about. He worried that all of the humans knew the answers to the questions and he didn't. He obsessed about whether humans were dangerous or what kind of armory they had and whether they were after _him._

The bell rang.

Zim headed home to his base to continue where he had left off. He signed out some books from the library about the planet Earth. Earlier (when skool ended), when he asked the librarian if she had anything on Earth, the librarian just shot him this look which gave him a guilty feeling overlapping the enthusiasm that he had for his research. Nonetheless, she scoffed and motioned him to follow her and as he did, he discovered to see a whole pile of books about the planet that he was looking for. Zim almost forgot about how upset he was feeling and he dived into the books to see exactly what he wanted. He decided that he had found three books that were perfect for his research and after he signed them out, he left the building.

He plopped himself on the couch with a book open and started to read. He skimmed through the pages, coming across a lot of interesting facts about the planet. Carrying a notepad and pencil, Zim jotted down everything that he thought that was important and that he would need to know about the humans. He soon heard loud footsteps and noticed Gir stomping into the living room.

"What do you think you are doing?" he asked, while folding his arms impatiently.

He glanced up from the book, to see what made his "dog" in such a bad mood. Was it him? Was it something he did? This brought him such curiosity that he set the book down completely to give Gir his undivided attention. "I'm just doing research about this planet. I would like to know more about this 'earth' that these 'humans' speak of in case a natural disaster strikes."

Gir cocked a non-existent eyebrow at the green boy. "Research?" the dog repeated angrily. "That is such nonsense; such, such filth. Why must you waste your time occupying yourself with such… madness?"

"Well, I want to do it all tonight so I could have some time left over to watch The Crazy Monkey Show."

Gir's ears perked up when he heard those last four words and he shuddered at the thought, "That horrible monkey."

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With numerous hours to spare, Dib plopped down on his chair and got straight to work on the homework that Mrs. Bitters assigned. Overwhelming as her class was, Mrs. Bitters was definitely not an easy teacher or an easy marker. Even though he always managed to finish and receive A's in her class; at time to time, even an A student such as himself had his moments where he just couldn't concentrate. Could you imagine that?

"Hey genius?" the boy jerked his head up to see his sister Gaz. "Guess who called and left three messages?"

Dib smacked his head with his palm and slid it down his face in frustration, "Not again."

"Yeah, again," Gaz said plainly. "You know, I think this Keef guy really likes you. I think that you two should go out on a date together," she mocked.

"Stop it Gaz!" he shouted abruptly. He stood up from his chair, "He's not my boyfriend. He's not even my friend. I just used him in the first grade because I got tired of the kids in my class making fun of me for having no friends."

"And he still stalks you?" his sister laughed, she was enjoying this.

Dib rolled his eyes, annoyed.

"You know," his sister continued, "If this guy is bothering you so much, then why don't you just disconnect the phone?"

Dib could see that his sister made a good point and she noticed how much it was killing him but, he didn't want to admit that. "Um… I'll just wait until he decides to stop calling."

"Your loss," she shrugged.

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Zim went down to his 'lab' that he invented (what with all the 'excited about research thing'), carrying his books and lap top under one arm. It was a nice way of getting peace and quiet without Gir's constant criticism and put downs. He whirled around in the chair happily, racking his brain on how he was going to spend his time. An idea came into his mind which triggered a bright expression to light up his face. He decided that with all the research and notes that he jotted down was that he was going to write his own story about the planet Earth, since he was living on it. Even though he still believed that he had no idea what the planet was really about, it didn't hurt him to get a little creative, too.

Zim pulled out his lap top and uncovered it. When he found a writing program, he beamed to himself and decided to get to work. He was having a little trouble getting started though. He didn't think that writing would be this hard but it seemed that he was suffering from a mild writer's block and couldn't concentrate. He grabbed the book that he was reading earlier and glanced at it once more to get some more facts and familiarize himself more with the topic. He jotted more notes down and he read them to himself, trying to understand what was written so he could get begin his story.

He squirmed in his chair, feeling aggravated, "Ugh, why does this have to be so frustrating? How are these _people_ able to write stories? What do they have that I don't?" He shouted a loud, getting on himself again.

Honestly, though, Zim was prone to give up on things quickly. No matter how excited he seemed to changes and to being adventurous, a phase like that didn't even last long and the green kid would just go back to feeling agitated and upset with himself with not having the right stuff. Perhaps it could be because that he rushed too quickly into things and didn't allow himself to get more practice and experience in a specific field. He however, was not aware of that. He felt that the way to determine on what one is best at was to try it once and that exactly was the problem.

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The next day at skool, Mrs. Bitters was taking attendance.

"Sara?" she growled harshly.

"Here," she raised her hand happily. The teacher poked her head from the attendance to see what Sara looked like.

"Billy," she continued.

"Present," Billy piped. Mrs. Bitters did the same thing with Billy.

"Jennifer," she called hoarsely.

"Here," Jennifer replied.

"Zim?" There was so response; a complete silence emerged.

"Zim?" she tried again, a bit more annoyed.

Still no response. "Where is that doomed child?!" the teacher slammed her attendance list on the table.

"Don't bother, Mrs. Bitters. Zim's not coming today," she heard a boy's voice from the front of the room. "I exposed him about his secret as an alien so he decided to hide out at his secret base instead of come to skool."

"Thank you, Dib. You get another A," Mrs. Bitters smiled at his prized student.

Dib briefly beamed with pride and provided his teacher with his undivided attention.

"Okay, children, today you will be-"

"Sorry, I'm late, Mrs. Bitters," Zim panted as he made his entrance into the classroom.

"Apology not accepted, Zim. Just for that, you've just earned yourself another detention."

"But-" he was about to protest.

"Silence! I don't want to hear another sound from you! Take your seat," she barked.

Zim obeyed and glumly walked back to his seat while Mrs. Bitters' eyes were still fixed on him as she hissed furiously.

"Now, for today's English lesson; open your textbook to 4226. We are going to review some poetry today."

The students looked at her dully as they opened their textbooks and flipped to the page that was expected. Zim frowned as he looked at the page in his book. He couldn't imagine that poetry was that much work but still, learning about poetry could help him with his writing and get over his writer's block.

"Now, children," Mrs. Bitters cleared her throat. "Today's lesson will be about the different types of poetry. Ahem… many of you might be familiar with the basics of poetry and others aren't. For those who aren't, all I could say for you is that you're lost causes and there's no hope for your futures. Anyway, moving along; who could name me the first type of poem?"

The students refused to pay attention.

"If you don't answer me then I will be forced to do experiments on you while you're sleeping!" Mrs. Bitters hissed loudly.

The students perked up from their desks and the teacher could see that they all immediately raised their hands in unison.

Zim however, didn't bother to pay any attention to the lesson. He thought that poetry was just a waste of time and it was meaningless to the human race. Being poetic had nothing to do with anything and it was just revolting, like the cafeteria food. He had no tendency in learning it, believing that it wouldn't even be in his field of expertise if he wanted to study something. He fiddled around with the dust on the desk, careless about the class. When would he ever need to write poetry in his life?

"Okay, students. For your assignment, I would like you to write a poem and it is due tomorrow."


	3. Chapter 3: Coming Home

It was dark

_Dib hated his life…_

_And for his entire life, he had always felt that way. He grew up to be the failure son of the Membrane family, who his father; his own flesh and blood, treat him as if he were nothing. He saw him as nothing. His accomplishments were nothing and his life was nothing. Dib was ignored; he was invisible. No family parties, no praise; not even a simple pat on the back for acknowledgement._

_Dib hated his life…_

_He hated his family. Hate is known to be a very powerful word and Dib __**hated**__ his father. But most importantly, he hated himself._

_He shut the door behind him and looked at his father, humiliated. His father just glared at him and didn't say a word._

_He hung his head as he paced himself up the stairs. "Go do your homework!" Dib would hear his father yell. And that was it._

_In his room, Dib's pen scratched onto the paper, scribbling jargon, the feeling in his arm that this paper deserved to be treated like a throwaway but, Dib did no such thing. _

_He couldn't go through with it._

_Struggling to see in the dark, the boy's writing was messy but, he didn't notice, let alone care. He hardly cared that the teardrops that touched the paper smudged the black ink when he turned on the light to get a better look._

_He heard footsteps. The door opening. The garage closing. The car started. Dib pressed his ear to the window._

"_Gaz, I am so proud of you. Tonight, I'm taking you out." Dib heard his father say._

"_Where's Dib?"_

"_Who? The other one? Such things are not important in our lives. I'm sure that tonight will take your mind off of him."_

It was dark.

After a long day at skool, Dib finally managed to drag himself home. He drudged along the pavement; his book bag enjoying the ride as it scraped itself along the sidewalks, gathering dry, crusty cement on the bottom. The boy was late and his dad was going to kill him. Not that this was new to him, remembering how often he had to go through with what was in store for him. He knew it in his heart that he was an independent child; at least, more so than most eleven year old boys. But, either way, Dib was preparing for the worst.

He reached the doorsteps, slowly. He dug into his pocket, to pull out his keychain, which had his house key and other miniature items. In the dark, he filed his items, finding the key to the house and managed to find it. The key was slowly inserted into the small key hole, as Dib twisted it around to unlock his door. He pushed his way in and dropped his bag carelessly, as the door swung shut.

Dib headed up the stairs. He was worn-out and was in no mood for any punishment or whatever his father was going to say. Most importantly, he had no patience to hear how much of a good child Gaz was and how he should be more like her. Sure, he was used to all of the favoritism going on the house but, like every typical kid who lives in a typical house, there were standards.

It was understood. He could take a hint. Dib was not wanted in this family and according to his father, he did not deserve for his life to get easier unless, he was willing to settle down and obey him; no matter how unfair the consequences were.

Now that he knew he was alone, there was nothing left for his family. And, in much precision, Dib was no award winning individual. He was worthless.

Dib lay silently in his bed, hearing the murmuring from downstairs; his father telling his sister on how proud he was of her, made him get a sick feeling inside, like he was nothing.

He pulled the cover over his head, hiding himself in shame. His breathing quiet, but dynamic to swish the covers in an up and down motion as he drifted away in a deep sleep.

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Zim settled himself, turning every page of his book happily. He was so interested in his reading, the time nearly flew by.

This was the best way to relax after an unpleasant day at skool. To cuddle up on the couch and engage in your most favorite activity and Zim loved reading which went along with his research. This was no picture book. But, the green kid made it seem like the book was fun to browse through. He smiled, knowing that he finished his poem hours ago. Surprisingly, he didn't just scribble random jargon on it and just treat it like a throwaway like any other homework that he has completed in the past. Poetry has actually opened his eyes to new experiences in the world and it was fascinating to know that such a way of expressing yourself actually existed.

"_This is a good book,"_ he muttered to himself, getting back on reading the story.

Of course, Zim was already interested in poems. It's not like he was hiding anything. At the same time, he hated to admit that he was wrong about it in the first place. His carelessness over it was short-lived and he could see that but, the only thing that seemed to bother him was he didn't deliberately pull himself in into the whole idea. Knowing who Zim was and all, he was raised off into judging the book by its cover and whenever he reached the stage of realizing the error if his ways, it always pained him. Perhaps, it is not that he disliked poetry all together. Merely, in his own subconscious, he wasn't always ready to try something new. Nonetheless, his new found poetic side has made his life turn for the better, along with his desire for internet research. Like his internet research, Zim has developed a weird kind of passion for poetry. The love-hate kind.

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**I know. This was kind of a short chapter and I did promise that I would get to writing about the poetry assignments themselves (for those who are interested.) Please Review. And please, I need more people to review. More people at review this chapter and my previous ones. If it's not too much to ask.**


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